Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know about Air Travel: Guestions, Answers, and Reflections

Cockpit Confidential was first published in 2013. In this second edition, the contents have been significantly refreshed and updated. I’d estimate about 20 percent of the material is new. As in the original version, I have done my best to ensure long-term timeliness of the information. However, please bear in mind that commercial aviation is a landscape—or skyscape if you’d rather—of ever-shifting facts and statistics: airlines come and go; planes are bought and sold; routes are swapped and dropped; now and then comes a tragedy. I apologize in advance for any portions that—thanks to an industry that never stays still—are in any way no longer accurate. 

Special thanks to my agent, Sophia Seidner, and to Shana Drehs at Sourcebooks. Logistical, proofreading, and creative support was provided by Julia Petipas. Acoustic accompaniments by Bob Mould, Grant Hart, Greg Norton, and the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy. 

All thoughts and opinions herein are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of any airline, agency, or entity. For further information, questions, and additional reading, please visit www.askthepilot.com.

Patrick Smith Somerville, Massachusetts